Jimmy Tootie (film)
Jimmy Tootie is a 2015 American 3D computer-animated action-adventure comedy film produced by Xtranormal Animation Studios for Paramount Pictures and CBS Films. Based on the CBS animated television series of the same name, it was the second film by Xtranormal Animation to be a reboot, and is the first installment in the studio's reboot franchise of the original series. It was directed by Chris Wedge from a screenplay by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, and Jordan Roberts, and a story by Wedge, Audel LaRoque, Roberts, and Berger, and stars an ensemble voice cast consisting of Sean Hayes, Dan Aykroyd, Jennifer Lawrence, James Franco, Garry Shandling, Alan Tudyk, Justin Timberlake, Martin Lawrence, Michael Keaton, Amy Poehler, Taylor Swift, Regina King, and Emma Roberts. In the film, Jimmy, Ethan, Bridgett, Dukey, Moe and Zoe take their own risks in a wild adventure including time travel, explosions, romance, comedy, and love while meeting new friends and stopping an all new threat while getting used to the 21st century. Jimmy Tootie marked the first time in over 30 years, that Jimmy Tootie was released in theaters. Production of the film began in 2008 when Chris Wedge, who was a fan of the series when he was younger, believed that the newer generation should be able to live and remember the series along with their rememberable characters and gags as well. The film was originally developed under the name Tootie 3-D; in February 2012, it was confirmed that the film was to be a reboot simply titled Jimmy Tootie. Due to 2 of the main cast members Don Messick and Mel Blanc dying before production of the film was started and in the hopes of attracting a larger audience with better-known actors, none of the cast from the original series reprised their roles in the film. The music for the film was composed by James Horner and David Newman. Jimmy Tootie premiered on May 5, 2015 at the Dolby Theatre, and was released in the United States in 3D, IMAX, and IMAX 3D on May 22, 2015. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who consider it to be a general modern-day successor to the series and the original 1979 film and praised its animation, humor, plot, visual style and effects, and vocal performances particularly of Hayes, Timberlake, Aykroyd, and Roberts although total changes of some characters were heavily criticized. The film earned a total of $800.7 million worldwide against a big budget of $200 million, making it the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2015. A sequel to the film titled Jimmy Tootie Too! will be released on August 17, 2018. Plot In a suburban town located in Texas, a young boy named Jimmy Tootie is a big time fan of adventures with dreams of being a comedian as well as going on dangerous adventures with bad stunts. He is the most loved boy in his neighborhood as everyone knows and loves him. He usually hangs out with his friends: Ethan Johnson, Bridgette Baker, Dukey Robertson and the twins Moe and Zoe Jenkins. One morning, Jimmy's parents Barth and Catherine announce that he has a new neighbor by the name of Reggie Faison and instantly becomes Jimmy's friend. Reggie reveals he loves adventures as well. Faison reveals that he wants to create a good adventures with Jimmy and his friends revealing to be a genius young scientist as well. Bridgette, who is curious about Reggie Faison, breaks into his house only to find a time machine and is greeted by Faison himself, explaining his newest invention to help the world have their problems solved just by going back in time and fixing them. While talking, a news report warns everyone about The Timekeeper who is a villain that takes his victims back in time only to vaporize them from history permanently. A few hours later, Jimmy sneaks into Reggie's house after being confronted by Bridgette to check it out and brings along Moe, Zoe, Ethan, and Dukey. While finding the time machine, all of a sudden, they are all set back to the 1970's after seeing many people having afros. Michael Jackson, who lives in this era, tells Jimmy Tootie about the Timekeeper and later gets chased to 1993, at a movie premiere. Coming soon! Voice cast * Sean Hayes as Jimmy Tootie, a fearless, humorous, intelligent, and affectionate 12-year-old boy who has a great knowledge of the world and has a very good sense of humor. * Justin Timberlake as Reggie Faison, a 14-year-old boy who is a genius and always solves problems. * Dan Aykroyd as Ethan Johnson, an 12-year-old optimistic, curious, and adventurous boy who is the closest friend to Jimmy and has known him since he was only 2 months old. * Jennifer Lawrence as Bridgette Baker, a 10-year-old girl who is the youngest person in Jimmy's clique as well as being the only girl whose in it as well. She is described as a shy and fearful young girl who always worries about what will happen everytime she goes on an adventure with Jimmy. * James Franco as John "Dukey" Robertson, a 14-year-old boy who is overprotective and caring about Jimmy Tootie always reminding him about the bad things that could happen when going out on a dangerous adventure. Despite this, he is shown to be a fighter protective Jimmy and his friends at anything that can happen. * Garry Shandling and Alan Tudyk as Moe and Zoe Jenkins, two identitical twins who are both 13-years-old and befriend Jimmy during day care when they was both 3. They are always following each other and does what the other twin does whenever in a bad situation. * Martin Lawrence as Jehu Tootie, the 18-year-old older cousin of Jimmy Tootie who always call his adventures and actions childish although he shows love to him. * Michael Keaton as Barth Tootie, the energetic, protective and fun father of Jimmy Tootie who always supports his son no matter what stupid or dumb things he does. * Amy Poehler as Catherine Tootie, the youthful, fun, and talented mother of Jimmy Tootie who is shown to have a talent of singing and has a happy personality. * Tara Strong as Minnie Brown, the new girl on the block who is revealed to be an ex-girlfriend of Reggie Faison and happens to assist and aid Jimmy and his friends on stopping him. She is described as a fearless, courageous, and determined 14-year-old teenage girl that tries in every effort to hide her youthful playful personality from everyone she meets. * Regina King as Dina Williams, an African-American boy with a Jamaican accent that is a neighbor of Jimmy Tootie who is often amazed by Tootie's actions and the events that occur as a result. * Emma Roberts as Keisha Moore, an 11-year-old girl that is an irritating student and best friend of Dina Williams who Jimmy always tries to avoid as otherwise she'll tattle-tail on him. * James Caan as Hilton Brown, the strict father of Minnie Brown. * Julie Kavner as Regina Brown, the strict mother of Minnie Brown. * Frank Welker as Principal Dicken, the principal of Keno Junior High. Welker previously provided the voice of Jimmy Tootie (as well as Dina Williams and various characters) in the original series. * Kendrick Lamar as DeeJay, the local rapper of Chitown. * Alex Borstein as Shelby, a girl who Dukey has a crush on. * Chris Wedge and Jordan Roberts as the bully bots, the robots created by Reggie Faison who are put in various eras of time to stop Jimmy and his friends from completing their mission on stopping him. * Scott Innes and Jeff Bergman as Niel and Tomkin, two boys who always make fun of Jimmy. * Michael Hollick as Mr. Braman, Jimmy's Teacher. * Corey Burton as Dr. Yalaco, the evil scientist and assistant to Reggie Faison * Dee Bradley Baker as Hairy, Reggie's pet creature. Additional Voices *Isabella Acres *Jim Anderson *Jack Angel *Alexander Bates *Bob Bergen *Claudia Besso *Brian Cook *Taylor Swift *Madison Davenport *AnimatedJames *Debi Derryberry *Bill Farmer *Don Fullilove *Teresa Ganzel *Zachary Gordon *Jess Harnell *William Jennings *Adam Macklin *Danny Mann *Laura Marano *Mona Marshall *Mickie McGowan *Alec Medlock *Brandon Minez *Laraine Newman *Colleen O'Shaughnessey *Madison Pettis *Jan Rabson * Grace Rolek * Karen Stimson * Jim Ward *Wally Wingert * Ariel Winter Production In 2003, Xtranormal Animation Studios announced plans to make another Jimmy Tootie feature film after realizing that it's been a long time since he's been on the big screen with the intention of it being animated in CGI rather than traditional animation. Writers Steven Haines and Darius Young were hired by Xtranormal to write a script for the film; eventually, Haines and Young wanted Jimmy to be more "cartoony" like the series back in the 70's. Young and Haines script titled Jimmy in a Tree, had Joe Figgens threatening to remove Jimmy from existance causing him to get new friends and help on his goal. After the release of Denny's Big Movie in 2005, however, Paramount Pictures cancelled production on Jimmy in a Tree due to the former being a box office failure as well as a reboot of an older animated series. After the cancellation of Jimmy in a Tree, Xtranormal CEO Brian Hane regarding the future of the Jimmy series on an interview in August 2007, he said, "I don't have anything official to announce, but I can speak as an individual, I love Jimmy Tootie, and I love those other guys I created. And I would love to find a way to bring him back, if we could." Ren Wildshill, president of Xtranromal, has said that he would love to see a revival of the original Jimmy Tootie television series, or even a full blown reboot. Frank Welker, the original voice of Jimmy Tootie, said he is hopeful that Xtranormal will "bring Jimmy back to their glory days and that the character is still very dear to fans between 18–49 years". In May 2008, Gingo revealed through an IGN interview the possibility that they may revive both series of Jimmy Tootie as well as Juni. In September 2006, however, Wildshill stated in an interview with Ain't It Cool News that Xtranormal oes not miss working on either series and has no intention of bringing them back to life. Despite this, Frank Welker stated that the studio would love to return to Jimmy Tootie but doesn't see it as viable. A computer-animated film based on Jimmy Tootie, under the working title Tootie 3-D, was confirmed by Paramount Pictures, CBS Films, and Xtranormal Animation on February 1, 2009. Chris Wedge was announced as director, Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, and Jordan Roberts writing the film's screenplay. Eventually, DreamWorks Animation's Teresa Cheng was pitched in to assist with the production. The film's original release date on December 20, 2013 was also announced. Geo, who had been working with the writers and story development artists on the film since mid 2008, said he felt pressure to avoid creating "another dud" for Xtranormal. In the summer of 2010, there were claims that the film was going to be a reboot. In October 2010, IGN reported the title of the film would be simply Jimmy, while ComingSoon.net reported it would be Jimmy Tootie the following December. On February 23, 2011, Paramount officially confirmed that the film would be indeed a reboot and was retitled simply as Jimmy Tootie. It was also announced that the original voice cast from the Jimmy Tootie series two of which (Don Messick and Mel Blanc) has died decades before the production of this film will be entirely replaced by better-known actors due to the hopes of attracting a larger audience as well as the deaths of Blanc and Messick. In September 2012, Gabriel Garza was pushed back from 2014 May 22, 2015 (the scheduled release date for Xtranormal's Chicken Head). According to Brian Sharp, the primary reason for the rescheduling was to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the original Gabriel Garza television series. In November 2012, Sean Hayes, known for his role in Will & Grace, was announced to play the voice of Jimmy Tootie, taking the place of Gabriel's original voice actor Frank Welker (who voiced a minor role via additional voices in the film instead); in addition to Hayes, Dan Aykroyd, Jennifer Lawrence, James Franco, Garry Shandling, Alan Tudyk, Justin Timberlake, Martin Lawrence, Michael Keaton, Amy Poehler, Taylor Swift, Regina King, and Emma Roberts have also joined the cast. During the initial development stages of the film, Xtranormal revisited their work from the studio's abandoned Jimmy in a Tree project and found that though they could open the old files for the character models, they were unable to edit them; this resulted in them recreating the models from scratch. Erica Rivinoja did an uncredited rewrite of the script. Release Marketing The film's first teaser trailer was released with How to Train Your Dragon 2 on June 13, 2014, and was also shown before Think Like a Man Too, and reissues of Gabriel Garza 2. ''The first full-length trailer was attached as an exclusive sneak peek and a first footage on September 12, 2014, and was shown before ''Dolphin Tale 2, The Maze Runner, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, The Book of Life, Big Hero 6, and Dumb and Dumber To. A second full length trailer was released on December 12, 2014, followed by a third full-length trailer on March 13. Several merchandise was made for Jimmy Tootie, such as toys and figurines. Paramount teamed up with several major companies to promote the film, including McDonald's, who included 8 toys in their Happy Meals featuring the main characters, and Airheads, who made limited-edition flavors "The Evil Flavor" and "Jimmy's Lemony Taste". A contest, which ended in early March 2014, allowed fans to submit ideas for flash animations to promote the release of the film. The winning idle idea "Jimmy's Test" was unveiled on June 4, 2014. Home media Jimmy Tootie was released in the United States and Canada on DVD and Blu-ray on September 29, 2015 with a standalone single-disc DVD release being released on that same day. The release included a new short film titled The PlayStation. The film was re-issued on Blu-ray on June 17, 2017. It includes an exclusive behind the scenes footage along with a plush Jimmy Tootie. It was re-issued again on Blu-ray on February 21, 2018. Video game A video game based on the film was published by Electronic Arts and released on May 4, 2015 for the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Xbox 360. Soundtrack Reception Critical reception Jimmy Tootie has received positive reviews from critics with some stating this film being better than the original 1979 film. Based on 187 reviews, the film holds a 94% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus stating "Jimmy Tootie ''amplifies the simplicity of the original 1970's cartoon and expands it, offering both children and nostalgic adults a blast of gut-busting moments, exciting twist-and-turns, and dazzling animation." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has an average score of 72 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Box office The film grossed $54,299,100 on its opening day (Friday, May, 22, 2015), being released in 4,200 theaters and opening weekend being $137,291,011 which was at the time the highest grossing opening weekend for an animated film until being topped by ''Incredibles 2. The film grossed $400,291,199 in North America and $400,499,091 in other countries, with a total gross of $800,790,290 worldwide, making it the eighth highest-grossing film of 2015. Accolades Coming soon! Sequel A sequel titled Jimmy Tootie Too! will be released on August 17, 2018 with GoAnimate Animation being involved instead of Xtranormal due to Vyond acquiring and folding Xtranormal into their own studio in 2017. Category:Paramount Pictures films Category:CBS Films Category:Xtranormal Animation Studios films Category:GoAnimate Studios Category:2015 Films Category:2015 films Category:United International Pictures films Category:Movies that are rated PG Category:PG Rated Movies Category:RealD 3D Category:IMAX DMR Category:IMAX Digital 2D Category:IMAX 3D